Friday, September 30, 2011

Rangers season so far

This blog is being written right after the Rangers loss to Tampa Bay in Game 1 of their series with the Devil Rays so I will be coming across as the biggest knee jerk reactionary fan there is. I am writing this with hopes that I am wrong in everything I write here but after seeing what happened to the Rangers today, my fears about them are coming to fruition. Before the season started my concern was one I suspect many had, that without Cliff Lee the Rangers would not be able to make it back to the world series. Despite their best efforts, the Rangers were unable to sign Cliff Lee and Zack Grienke afterward and that is what will hurt them in the playoffs. The pitchers the Rangers have now are good and sometimes great but none are consistenly great to where you would call them the ace of the staff. In the playoffs you inevitably face teams with great hitters or hitters on great hitting streaks and just good pitching is not enough to defeat teams like this. This was shown today as CJ Wilson struggled with a team with hitters that are on good hitting streaks and don't swing at pitches outside the strike zone. Wilson is a good pitcher but is really a number two pitcher and would not be an ace on probably 80% of the teams in major league baseball.
Despite this there is no reason to throw in the towel since Tampa Bay does not have a pitcher on the level of Justin Verlander or Cliff Lee and it is very possible the Ranger hitters can do to Tampa Bay what Tampa Bay did to CJ Wilson today. For now my feelings on the Rangers are the same I had before the season started. A team with great hitting and good pitching but not pitching good enough to get back to the world series.
Rangers, please prove me wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!